When your top Candidate's current Employer counter-offers | Job Seekers: don't just read the Job Description
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When your top Candidate's current employer counter-offers
What would you do if an Applicant your Organization has been interviewing and have been hopeful of hiring tells you they are expecting their current Employer to provide them with a counter-offer, and would consider taking it, when you've presented them with an Offer of your own?
Now the most common ways of dealing with counter-offers - aside from trying to offer more $$ (which can certainly work sometimes) - is usually to tell Candidates that "its never a good idea to accept a counter-offer", or "If your Employer had the ability to pay you that much, why didn't they do it before", the somewhat scary "Now that they know you've been job searching, they'll get rid of you later...", and of course "Statistics show that even when people accept counter-offers they end up leaving after X number of months".
In most cases what you'll find is the above avenues leading to a dead end. Not because they don't have some truth to them - but because they are the standard "go-to" lines most people use to try and salvage these situations and Job Seekers have heard some variations of these over and over again and now they internally roll their eyes when they hear it.
Before I get into what I believe to be a more productive conversation when these situations happen, I wanted to emphasize that what you don't want to do is reacting in an entitled manner when a Candidate tells you they might consider their current Employer's counter-offer as if they've performed some large act of betrayal against you. Trying to guilt or pressure them into accepting your offer because of all the hard work you put in to putting the Offer together probably won't change anything.
Don't take it so personal!
Look - they very well might see staying with their current Employer as the most sound decision they can make for themselves at the moment OR it could very well be they have cold feet and not sure about leaving anymore.
Whatever the scenario, I do know this: if they were completely happy, they would not have entertained the opportunity with your Organization in the first place and would not have interviewed with you. You need to revisit this with them and bring to the forefront: why did they want to entertain leaving their current Employer in the first place? Does the counter-offer include addressing and resolving those reasons for wanting to leave? And based on the counter-offer and the fact that those reasons for wanting to leave might still be in place, does that really change anything for them? Or are they looking to stay because they are comfortable where they currently are?
By having this discussion with your Candidate, you'll be able to help them recognize whether indeed they should stay or get on-board with your Organization because it makes more sound, logical sense.
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If you're an Organization in Canada looking to recruit Tech Talent and want more information about how I can potentially help you find Talent - send me a direct message or email me at dean@techrecruiters360.com.
Job Seekers: don't just read the Job Description
Job Descriptions aren't always accurate reflections of the role, duties, expectations and responsibilities - but often times they are the sole piece of information you have to base your Resume on, as well as helping you with your Interview preparation especially if you applied to the job directly and not through a Staffing Agency.
But the mistake I see Job Seekers make is thinking that the job description is just that: a job description. Instead you need to be looking at it as something you should be analyzing and dissecting for clues on items of high importance (potentially) to the Hiring Team. This can greatly assist you during the Interview because from the Hiring Team's perspective, they mostly want to hear about how you can help them with a set of problems or outcomes they're looking to address.
So when going over the job description, one of the major tasks you need to perform is connecting the requirements with potential problem areas/challenges or outcomes the Hiring Team is looking to address.
For example, let's say there's a bulleted requirement on the description stating:
Must be able to interact with difficult and challenging customer requests.
What does this tell us? Well, chances are the Organization is experiencing this themselves. They might have a customer who has been a challenge to work with due to their requests, maybe they are really difficult to work with, etc. Have you dealt with such customers in the past? Be prepared to share examples on how you navigated such relationships effectively and delivered positive results, as they might ask questions related to this during the Interview itself.
Line by line, go over the job description and connect any listed requirement into potential problem areas for the Hiring Team which, in advance of the Interview, will help you get a clearer picture of how things might look at the Organization and allow you to start planning how to position yourself as exactly the person they need. These are all clues to help you get a better understanding of the pain-points the Organization is looking to resolve. This should help you have a more productive conversation during the Interview.
Are you an IT Professional with 3+ years of professional work experience living in Canada and looking for new opportunities? Send me a direct message with an introduction of yourself and let me know your career goals - if I can't help you now, I can help you in the future!
Any topics you want me to cover in a future Edition? Let me know in the comments - don't forget to Like + Subscribe if you haven't already!
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